March Madness: The Ultimate Battle

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It's a comic-book brawl to see who'll be crowned National Champ. Get your bracket and participant breakdown here!

By Hilary Goldstein

Updated on April 4, 2005

The NCAA Tournament is well underway. And while this weekend will determine who'll make the final four for Men's College Hoops, a far more important battle is also being decided. IGN Comics is proud to present its own version of March Madness featuring 64 characters from Marvel, DC, Image and other comic-book companies. The competitors will meet this weekend battling down to the Sweet Sixteen and continue the tournament through next week. Who'll win? Who knows -- that's the beauty of an at-large tournament.

Selections Selections were made by a panel of three independent observers. First characters were chosen, then separated into four different brackets: Icon, Hero, Villain and Graveyard. Graveyard, for those wondering, consists of characters who are currently dead, are often dead, or who might as well be dead (That's how the committee snuck in Johnny the Homicidal Maniac).

Selection Panel

As there are more than 10,000 comic-book characters to choose from and only 64 slots to fill, there are some unfortunate omissions. The most glaring is the committee's slighting of the X-Men's Colossus. Of course, no selection process is perfect and it is possible bribery or other malicious dealings were involved in his being left on the bench.

Originally, Galactus was seeded #1, but it was discovered early this morning that he had taken money from a booster. Fortunately a suitable alternate was found -- Top Shelf's own Owly.

How it Works Battles will take place this weekend, with results posted on Monday. Print your bracket out tonight, fill it in and see if your picks made it to the Championship. Remember that any one can win and upsets are inevitable. Contestants are given time to prepare for battle, but do not know their opponent ahead of time.

Winners for each match are determined by a complex geek algorithm, furious debating, coin flips and gut decisions. Each result will be explained. Feel free to debate every last battle.

Here's the complete schedule for results posting:

Field of 64: Monday, March 28Round of 32: Tuesday, March 29Sweet Sixteen: Wednesday, March 30Elite Eight: Thursday, March 31Final Four: Friday, April 1 Finals: Monday, April 4